Look Out for Sticker Shock at the Coffee Shop

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Thanks to strong demand and a comparatively weak global supply, arabica and robusta coffee beans may get pricier; it’s possible they’ll become the priciest they’ve been since early 2015, Reuters reported, citing its own poll of 11 traders and analysts.

The analysts predicted a 26 percent increase in the price per pound of arabica beans (the kind used to make espresso and higher-end brews) over 2015 prices. Meanwhile, the price of robusta beans (which tend to be used in instant coffee or along with arabica beans in blends) was forecast to leap 30 percent over those in 2015 — the biggest annual increase since 2010, according to Reuters.

The traders polled by the news service cited supply-reducing factors, including dry weather conditions linked to El Nino in southeast Asia, drought-damaged crops in Brazil and rains linked to La Nina in Vietnam.

At the same time, the global demand for coffee and beans is at an all-time high, Bloomberg reported.

“Any kind of major weather threat could send … coffee prices back up to retest the 2011 highs near $3 per pound,” Shawn Hackett, president of the agricultural-commodity brokerage firm Hackett Financial Advisors, told Reuters.

The price increase would, of course, be passed along to coffee consumers.